Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese Christian human rights attorney who has been one of the most effective and influential advocates for democracy and human rights in China, was seized by police and last seen on February 4, 2009.
Gao’s abduction was just the most recent in a long history of his harassment and persecution by the People’s Republic of China. He has been repeatedly kidnapped, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured by the Chinese Communist government because he has dared to be a voice and a legal representative for the persecuted – challenging the Chinese government’s violations of its own constitution in a way which has enraged them and made them retaliate brutally against him.
In an April 2009 column in National Review, Jay Nordlinger expressed his admiration for Gao and for his wife, Geng He. Nordlinger quotes the letter that Geng He wrote to the U.S. Congress about the torture her husband underwent in 2007:
On the night of September 21, 2007, my husband, with a black hood thrown over his head, was kidnapped and brought to an unknown location. For 59 days, many people tortured and ravaged him in all kinds of ways, including beating him with an electric prod, inserting bamboo sticks into his reproductive organs, holding lit cigarettes close to his eyes and nose, etc., so that his eyes would burn and he would be forced to inhale smoke. My husband told me later that he was in such unbearable pain at the time that his sweat, blood, and other bodily fluids covered the floor. Among the reasons the authorities gave for tormenting my husband was that he had written to the United States Congress.
Gao’s long and passionate letter to the Congress begins with the revelation that he had, twice that month, read James Madison’s Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. He stated how much he “admired the freedom and democratic constitution which China has not been able to enjoy.” He then detailed the terrible human rights abuses in his country – the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, house church Christians, and others; the brutal suppression of those who were working to defend the human rights of the Chinese people, including the regular harassment of his own wife and children because of his actions; the government’s stealing of private property; the environmental disaster; the mistreatment of Chinese farmers, and many other problems.
In conclusion, Gao quoted both President Ronald Reagan and Jesus. “My dear ladies and gentlemen, you have the ability to take action now to stop all of the CCP’s crimes against humanity,” he said. “Just like President Reagan said, ‘If not us, who? And if not now, when?’” he challenged the Congress.
He ended the letter:
“Jesus said, “Love others as well as you love yourself.” Those struggling in the CCP prisons, those crying under the CCP’s tortures, those roaming around to avoid mistreatment need your help. When you light a candle, when you dress up, holding your cocktail or drink, I wish you will think of those suffering people. May God bless America, may God give each person justice, responsibility, and firm determination, may the light of freedom shine upon China proper, let evil have no place to hide, and may the mistreated no longer be in pain.
Nine days after the open publication of that letter, Gao was kidnapped and tortured.
Nordlinger followed up this column with a new column recently about Gao’s vanishing while in custody. It had been feared that Gao was dead for some time now. China Aid, while continuing to ask for prayer, reported that rumors had been circulating since mid-December 2009 that Gao had died from torture. China Aid said that the policeman who originally detained Gao told his brother that he had “gone missing” while taking a walk in September 2009. More recently, China Aid quoted an Associated Press report that the Chinese government was now saying cryptically that Gao “is where he should be.”
What is clear is that we need to pray for Gao and his family, and to do what we can to pressure the U.S. government to take action on their behalf. You can sign a petition on behalf of Gao at Free Gao. U.S. Representatives Frank R. Wolf (R-VA), Christopher Smith (R-NJ) and a some others are working on Gao’s behalf and on behalf of human rights in China. You can read the Congressional letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao here.
Let us pray, along with our brother Gao Zhisheng, that “the light of freedom” would “shine upon China” and that “evil [would] have no place to hide, and ….the mistreated no longer be in pain.”
Prayer Points for this Week:
January 28:
Pray for Gao, that there would be clarity about where he is, that the truth would be revealed.
January 29:
Pray for protection for Gao, that the angels of the Lord would shield him from persecution and torture, and that his health would be supernaturally sustained.
January 30:
Pray for Gao’s family, Geng He and their children, aged 16 and 5, now in the United States, would be comforted and sustained. Give Geng He strength to keep on fighting for the life of her husband.
January 31:
Pray for Gao to be able to make contact with his family.
February 1:
Pray for the U.S. government, particularly the Obama Administration, to make Gao, and all of the persecuted people in China, a priority.
February 2:
Pray for success in the work of members of Congress who care about Chinese Christians and other persecuted people.
February 3:
Pray for a change of heart and repentance on the part of the Chinese government. Pray that God would open the eyes that are blind and make tender the hearts of stone.
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